# New Ticket Created by paul.fardy@utoronto.ca
# Please include the string: [perl #32686]
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# <URL: http://rt.perl.org:80/rt3/Ticket/Display.html?id=32686 >
This is a bug report for perl from paul.fardy@utoronto.ca,
generated with the help of perlbug 1.34 running under perl v5.8.0.
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[Please enter your report here]
It appears that Red Hat's distributed /etc/inputrc contains
set mark-symlinked-directories on
which Term::ReadLine::readline does not currently recognize.
I presume that many other GNU systems may be use this (or other)
readline extensions.
As a result, use of Term::ReadLine generates complaints:
Undefined value assigned to typeglob at (eval 11) line 15, <RC> line 11.
Warning [/etc/inputrc line 11]:
Invalid variable `mark-symlinked-directories'
The warning is only presented in "if $^W", but that's always when you
believe that "-w is optional" is a bug as the man page once said. :-)
Moreover, the "Undefined value ..." message is redundant and unfriendly
to the typical user.
[ Even the latter message is a bit obscure, for that matter. 'What
the heck is "/etc/inputrc"?' But that's hardly something Perl can
change. :-) ]
Still, there are two considerations:
The Lesser: can readline.pm be updated to support the new variables?
A few extra default values would fix things, ... for now.
The Greater: can readline.pm be updated to handle such extensions more
elegantly?
(1) an option to allow "no warnings" within readline alone.
(2) a patch (provided) to removed the "Undefined value ..." message:
Test the value before using it:
CURRENT:
local(*V) = $ {'readline::'}{"var_$_"}; # generates warning
if (!defined($V)) {
warn "Warning: ...";
IMPROVED:
unless (defined ${'readline::'}{"var_$_"}) {
warn "Warning: ...";
return;
}
local(*V) = $ {'readline::'}{"var_$_"}; # won't generate warning
...
It would also be useful to have lint-like extended comments in the input
file. In /etc/inputrc
# :perl: Term::ReadLine allow mark-symlinked-directories
set mark-symlinked-directories on
but that would be stuff of wishes or, at least, the wishlist category. :-)
Thanks for your time,
Paul
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